So our landlord shows up to do some work today, and gives us a note that was left on our car, from "Ashley". No last name, no other info other than that and her phone number. Apparantly she's a new driver, has no idea how to back out of a parking space, and put a wicked dent in our passenger side door.
She doesn't want us to go to the insurance company as she's a new driver. Now, up here there's only one insurance company, and they're pretty straightforward. For something like this they'd jack her rate up by 10% for a year, and if she goes a year with no further issues they'd drop it back down. That's maybe $100+ a year at worst for her, compared to the possible grand it'll take to fix our door. She wants to pay for it herself, which is a big no-no.
Basically she wants us to call her with an estimate and we'll "work it out", which to me means she'll try to weasle out of it. We're going to file anyways on Monday, but before then we'll do our best to get as much info on her as possible, and if she shows up at the building again, a picture of her car (she's a guest here I think).
Seriously though, how hard is it to back out of a spot and not hit somebody? I can understand maybe nicking the back corner of their car as you start to turn, but she started to turn when her front end was next to our door, that's just retarded.
Pics and poorly drawn recreations to follow.
Update:
Spoke to her on the phone, turns out she's only got her learners (up here you get your learners, then your driver's license, then have to have a magnetic "N" on your car for two years so people know you're new), and was driving her mom's car when she wasn't supposed to. So not only is she not fully licensed, but was driving without an adult in the car who was. She's 20 or something, basically begged us to report it as a hit and run and she'd pay our deductable (and our insurance goes up and we're a party to fraud), or to let her pay for the estimate, which is going to be $1k+, on a payment plan to us.
Answer was no to both, we told her flat out that we were going to report it to insurance as is and give them any info we had, and encouraged her to come clean on it. At that point she started going on and on about how this would effect her job (shouldn't because she can't drive by herself anyways), and that unless the repair was under $300 or so she couldn't afford it anyways. So not only can she not afford to pay for it, but wants to be on a payment plan or some stupid crap.
Tomorrow the wife is going in to file a police report, we know it's a local mobile number, they already said that they'll get the info from the company and pass it on to insurance, she also said that she was going for her full driver's test next week and really wants to pass. At this point I really don't want her on the road, and now she's cost us a fair bit of money that she made very clear she couldn't afford to pay back unless we give her several months to do so, which isn't going to happen. So I'll let the police and the insurance company do their thing, fix our car, and go from there.
Update:
As promised, pics of damage on car, and a map of the recreation.
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Recreation
As you can see, they had the last spot before the tree, which means on their right side there was at least 7-8 feet until the tree, and behind them about 20-25 feet to the building. Instead of waiting to turn, they started turning right as they were backing out, and when they started to scrape our car, they obviously didn't stop, as there's scrapes over 14 inches long...they just kept going until they were finally free.
Update: 4/18
Had the car looked at by insurance on Monday, came back with an estimate of $1700-ish for a full replacement of the sheet metal and painting, plus labor and taxes and all that. Obviously we still just pay the deductible of $300, and at any point in the future if we find her they'll re-open the case and we get the money back. We're still waiting to hear from the cops, but aren't holding our breath. By the way, we have up to two years to go in and have the work done on the car, we pay the deductible to the mechanics/body shop, so we could still get the money from her, or choose to not go through with it, plenty of time to work it out.
Update: 4/24
Didn't want anyone to think I Goosed them, even though not much has happened. Cops haven't gotten back to us, either taking their sweet time or haven't found anything, we'll probably contact them in a few days to see what's been happening. The body shop we use for these types of issues (scratches and minor dents) has ordered the parts and won't have them until early May, so we're just kind of chilling for now. We've asked around a little bit, being very quiet about it though, trying to see if we know anyone who knows anyone who's heard anything, the whole 6-degrees kind of thing, just seeing if we can find out any new info. She would've had to have told her friends about it, and I'm sure they've mentioned it, and this isn't a huge town so we might know some of the same people.
Obviously, if we do find out anything interesting, I'll be sure to update it promptly, unlike some douchebags. Otherwise I'll simply post pics of the new panel once it's on the car in a few weeks and move on with my $300 poorer life.
She doesn't want us to go to the insurance company as she's a new driver. Now, up here there's only one insurance company, and they're pretty straightforward. For something like this they'd jack her rate up by 10% for a year, and if she goes a year with no further issues they'd drop it back down. That's maybe $100+ a year at worst for her, compared to the possible grand it'll take to fix our door. She wants to pay for it herself, which is a big no-no.
Basically she wants us to call her with an estimate and we'll "work it out", which to me means she'll try to weasle out of it. We're going to file anyways on Monday, but before then we'll do our best to get as much info on her as possible, and if she shows up at the building again, a picture of her car (she's a guest here I think).
Seriously though, how hard is it to back out of a spot and not hit somebody? I can understand maybe nicking the back corner of their car as you start to turn, but she started to turn when her front end was next to our door, that's just retarded.
Pics and poorly drawn recreations to follow.
Update:
Spoke to her on the phone, turns out she's only got her learners (up here you get your learners, then your driver's license, then have to have a magnetic "N" on your car for two years so people know you're new), and was driving her mom's car when she wasn't supposed to. So not only is she not fully licensed, but was driving without an adult in the car who was. She's 20 or something, basically begged us to report it as a hit and run and she'd pay our deductable (and our insurance goes up and we're a party to fraud), or to let her pay for the estimate, which is going to be $1k+, on a payment plan to us.
Answer was no to both, we told her flat out that we were going to report it to insurance as is and give them any info we had, and encouraged her to come clean on it. At that point she started going on and on about how this would effect her job (shouldn't because she can't drive by herself anyways), and that unless the repair was under $300 or so she couldn't afford it anyways. So not only can she not afford to pay for it, but wants to be on a payment plan or some stupid crap.
Tomorrow the wife is going in to file a police report, we know it's a local mobile number, they already said that they'll get the info from the company and pass it on to insurance, she also said that she was going for her full driver's test next week and really wants to pass. At this point I really don't want her on the road, and now she's cost us a fair bit of money that she made very clear she couldn't afford to pay back unless we give her several months to do so, which isn't going to happen. So I'll let the police and the insurance company do their thing, fix our car, and go from there.
Update:
As promised, pics of damage on car, and a map of the recreation.
Text
Text
Text
Text
Recreation
As you can see, they had the last spot before the tree, which means on their right side there was at least 7-8 feet until the tree, and behind them about 20-25 feet to the building. Instead of waiting to turn, they started turning right as they were backing out, and when they started to scrape our car, they obviously didn't stop, as there's scrapes over 14 inches long...they just kept going until they were finally free.
Update: 4/18
Had the car looked at by insurance on Monday, came back with an estimate of $1700-ish for a full replacement of the sheet metal and painting, plus labor and taxes and all that. Obviously we still just pay the deductible of $300, and at any point in the future if we find her they'll re-open the case and we get the money back. We're still waiting to hear from the cops, but aren't holding our breath. By the way, we have up to two years to go in and have the work done on the car, we pay the deductible to the mechanics/body shop, so we could still get the money from her, or choose to not go through with it, plenty of time to work it out.
Update: 4/24
Didn't want anyone to think I Goosed them, even though not much has happened. Cops haven't gotten back to us, either taking their sweet time or haven't found anything, we'll probably contact them in a few days to see what's been happening. The body shop we use for these types of issues (scratches and minor dents) has ordered the parts and won't have them until early May, so we're just kind of chilling for now. We've asked around a little bit, being very quiet about it though, trying to see if we know anyone who knows anyone who's heard anything, the whole 6-degrees kind of thing, just seeing if we can find out any new info. She would've had to have told her friends about it, and I'm sure they've mentioned it, and this isn't a huge town so we might know some of the same people.
Obviously, if we do find out anything interesting, I'll be sure to update it promptly, unlike some douchebags. Otherwise I'll simply post pics of the new panel once it's on the car in a few weeks and move on with my $300 poorer life.